394 Chapter 394: Technomagic (1/2)
\”This isn't looking good.\”
I understood Craig's murmur, seated beside as I was while our team watched the third individual match. Already Lily and Cody had lost their matches and we were currently down 0-2 to Anuaiz Academy, and it was looking as if we were going to be 0-3 down by the end of this match.
\”Huff…huff…\”
Dong Fang Yue Chu was panting while he withdrew from the opponent, a big, burly guy who carried a gigantic cannon. The heavy gunner, Timothy Drake, hefted his bulky weapon up and pointed the smoking barrel in Yue Chu's direction. The fire mage quickly dove to the side as the cannon unleashed a powerful torrent of superheated energy that seared the concrete into molten rock. Hitting the ground, Yue Chu rolled and threw a hand up to launch a huge fireball in Timothy's direction, but a metallic shard of armor hovered in front of him and erected an energy shield that deflected the spell and rendered it harmless.
\”That's cheating!\” Yue Chu complained, only to be forced to evade when Timothy fired another immense blast at him. Panting, he threw himself up and fired off a barrage of fireballs from different directions, but Timothy's armor shard settled on its wielder and turned into full body armor. A mechanical set of armor that resembled a metallic exoskeleton. The fireballs dispersed ineffectively against the advanced body armor, and the Anuaiz Academy student strode out of the inferno unscathed. Raising his left hand, he unleashed a hail of small but lethal energy sparks from a flechette blaster built into his wrist. The rain of energy projectiles carved tiny craters into the ground, even as Yue Chu scrambled hastily to dodge them.
Both of his hands glowing red-hot with flames, Yue Chu launched dual streams of hellfire at the lumbering Timothy. Confident in his armor's defenses, the heavy gunner allowed his gleaming exoskeleton to endure the inferno that bathed him before he raised the massive cannon with his augmented right arm and fired off yet another destructive bolt that tore a molten tunnel into the battered arena ground.
\”Damn it! How am I supposed to beat someone like that?! And isn't he just relying on his weapons and equipment instead of his magic?!\”
To be fair, Timothy was using his innate mana to power up his bulky cannon and move his power armor, so even though he was packing heavy firepower it came at a cost. Spamming such powerful spells and attacks must be extremely draining on him. It had been only fifteen minutes and already his movements had slowed considerably. Adjusting my glasses, I zoomed in on his face, just behind the armored but transparent visor of his exoskeleton, and noted the large amount of perspiration streaming down his face. A visual filter told me that he was quite pale from the exertion, and I could see from his moving, open mouth that he was breathing heavily.
I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have a lot of mana left. At this rate, he would run out of mana before he could subdue Yue Chu.
Unfortunately for Yue Chu, it would take only a single well-placed hit to bring him down. And Yue Chu's stamina wasn't without limits either. Just one mistake, one slip, and he would be knocked out from the match.
\”Damn it!\” rolling back to his feet, he crouched down and slammed both of his palms against the ground. \”Bloom, Rafflesia!\”
…uh, what? Since when did he turn into Julis Riessfeld? Was he going to name all of his fire spells after flowers?
When nothing happened, Yue Chu recognized his mistake, and he cursed under his breath. Instead, he switched the incantation, his lips moving and muttering something that I couldn't hear. Whatever he chanted, it definitely worked because the next thing we knew, the whole arena burst into flames and Timothy's armor was engulfed by an enormous inferno.
\”Hah! Your fire spells have no effect against my advanced TA-102 Armor!\” Timothy laughed maniacally, like some Saturday morning cartoon villain. Seriously? The idiot just raised his own flag for defeat. No villain who laughed like that would ever prevail. It was an iron law unbroken by any self-respecting cartoon or anime. For my part, I was also amused that Timothy's armor actually had an actual designation.
Yue Chu didn't rise to the bait. I smiled when my senses were prickled by the nature of his flames. This wasn't any ordinary fire spell, but…
\”The Pure Yang Flames.\”
\”?!\”
Timothy recognized that something was amiss, but by now it was too late. Swearing under his breath, the sweating heavy gunner lifted his massive cannon and fired off another immense shot toward Yue Chu. However, the fire mage firmly stood his ground and raised both of his hands to fend off the tremendous beam.
An enormous firewall shot out of the ground and intercepted the beam, exploding right in the middle of the coliseum and sending huge shockwaves that buffeted both Timothy and Yue Chu. They staggered a little, but somehow Yue Chu managed a smile as he gathered the resulting flames and absorbed them into his spell to strengthen the inferno.
\”Why, you…!\”
Timothy could sense the direction in which the fiery mana was flowing toward, and realizing the threat, he immediately flipped some sort of switch in his armor. Pods opened all over his exoskeleton, countless laser cannons that jutted out. With a single command, he triggered all of them and fired over a hundred laser beams that arced through the air to crash down on his opponent.
Even in the face of such a calamitous bombardment, Yue Chu remained stationary. Instead, he merely adopted a defensive stance, both his arms raised and ready. The firewall flickered away, torn apart by the first wave of lasers, but Yue Chu made no move to evade the rest.
\”What the fuck is he doing?!\” Craig demanded, his eyes wide. He wasn't the only one.
Right before the stunned spectators, Yue Chu's hands seemed to multiply several times, making it look as if he had a thousand arms. Like the thousand-armed Buddha, he thrust all of them forward, using his palms, fingers and fists to deflect each and every one of the laser beams that curved toward him. Divine fire wreathed each hand, allowing it to withstand the sheer destructive power of the countless laser beams that rained down on their owner.
Not only that, with each thrust and counter he executed with those many hands, the inferno that surrounded Timothy intensified. It wasn't just the temperature or heat. I wasn't sure how to describe it with words, but if I had to say, it was the \”purity\” of the flames. The yang essence of the flames, I guess? It just felt so pure, so divine.
\”W…what the hell are you?!\” Timothy roared as he stumbled back, trying to escape the flames. His onslaught of laser beams had ceased, each and every one of them successfully parried and deflected by Yue Chu, whose hands had returned to normal. Or I should say he no longer had a thousand hands but just a normal pair. The Buddha-like imagery was gone, replaced by that of a perfectly normal teenager. If a normal teenager could wield fire…
\”I'm Dong Fang Yue Chu from Jing Tian Academy,\” the fire mage replied sarcastically as he advanced upon Timothy. The heavy gunner growled something inaudible before he hefted his bulky cannon up to fire another massive torrent of energy at the approaching Yue Chu. Even so, my friend didn't falter and continued strolling toward the clearly trembling Anuaiz Academy student. I could see him trembling inside his armor, thanks to the transparent visor, in case you were wondering. No, his armor wasn't shaking, it was the wearer inside.
\”Fuck!\”
Howling, Timothy fired off a massive burst…or tried to, but nothing came out of his cannon. His jaw dropped and he glanced at his huge weapon, trying to understand what was going on.
\”Why won't it fire?!\”
At first glance, the cannon looked as if it was intact, but when I inspected it with the magnification function of my glasses I noticed that the hull had melted and warped from the sheer heat of Yue Chu's flames. Even so, the weapon was sturdy enough to be able to fire off at least a couple more shots despite the damage it had sustained.
The reason why it couldn't was…
\”Impossible! Impossible! Ugh?!\”